Holbrook driver cited for using HOV lane with a mannequin for passenger

Thursday

May 8, 2014 at 10:28 AMMay 9, 2014 at 12:11 PM

The carpool lane on the Southeast Expressway is for vehicles with two people.

HOLBROOK - By all accounts, the “man” in the passenger seat of the car traveling through the HOV lane looked real.

The suave-looking gent sported a mustache and defined eyebrows. He had deep set eyes highlighted with what appeared to be mascara and eyeshadow.

But “he” was a fake – counterfeit, as state police called it – and now, a 32-year-old Holbrook driver is in the hot seat for bringing a mannequin along for a ride in the HOV lane.

The Holbrook man – whom state police refused to identify – was cited for driving on an excluded way and fined $50. He was stopped by a state trooper Thursday morning who spotted him entering the HOV lane on Interstate 93 in Quincy with a mannequin propped up in the passenger seat.

“People don’t want to wait in traffic and they come up with ingenious ideas,” Richard said.

Trooper John Carnell was working a paid detail in Quincy around 6:35 a.m. Thursday when he noticed the driver entering the northbound HOV lane, which is reserved for vehicles carrying at least two people. After pulling the car over, Carnell found that the driver had propped a mannequin head on top of a work jacket.

Thursday’s stop wasn’t Carnell’s first encounter with a fake passenger.

In April 2013, Carnell cited an unidentified woman driver after she tried to pass off a full-size doll in a car seat as a human passenger.